Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 26 /Trend, A.Badalova/
Nabucco gas pipeline project's cost "won't be far away" from the current 7.9 billion-euro price tag, Bloomberg reported referring to Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH Managing Director Reinhard Mitschek. He couldn't say when a new cost figure would be announced.
This week Hungary's Minister for National Development Tamás Fellegi said that Nabucco project was in doubt because it had not yet secured a supply of gas or customers and because of increase in its cost, added that it could rise to 24-26 billion euro.
The EU's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said early in October that the project will cost 10 to 14 billion euros.
Nabucco gas pipeline project envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries.
The pipeline's construction was scheduled for 2013, while the first gas supplies via the pipeline were expected in 2017. Nabucco pipeline's maximum capacity will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.
The current participants of Nabucco project are Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE companies. Each of participants has equal share to the amount of 16.67 percent.
Earlier project's official representative Christian Dolezal told Trend that the cost of the pipeline is currently under review.
The exact cost of the project will be set after the completion of the detailed engineering.